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Claude for Operators

Vendor Evaluation

Last verified: 13 February 2026 | Applies to: All plans (Cowork + Chrome extension recommended for research)

In 30 seconds

Section titled “In 30 seconds”

Choosing the wrong vendor costs more than money — it costs months of rework and team goodwill. Claude accelerates vendor evaluation by building weighted scorecards, drafting RFPs, assessing vendor risks, and preparing negotiation briefs. It won’t make the decision for you, but it turns a scattered process into a structured one. Most operators produce a complete vendor comparison in 1-2 hours instead of the usual week of back-and-forth.

Step by step

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Build a weighted comparison scorecard

Section titled “Build a weighted comparison scorecard”
Build a weighted scorecard comparing these 4 CRM vendors for our 30-person professional services firm: [HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM].


Criteria and weights:
- Price (25%) — total cost for 30 users over 3 years, including implementation
- Integrations (20%) — must connect to Xero, Mailchimp, and our project management tool [Asana]
- Ease of use (20%) — our team is not technical, adoption is critical
- Customer support (15%) — we need responsive support in Australian business hours
- Scalability (10%) — can it handle 100 users and 50,000+ contacts?
- Reporting (10%) — built-in pipeline and revenue reporting


For each vendor, score 1-10 on each criterion. Include a notes column explaining the score. Calculate weighted totals and rank them. Flag any deal-breakers (must-have integrations that are missing, minimum user requirements not met, etc.).

Claude produces:

  • Scored matrix — all vendors rated against all criteria with weighted totals
  • Deal-breaker flags — requirements that eliminate a vendor regardless of score
  • Notes per cell — brief justification for each rating
  • Recommendation summary — top choice with reasoning, runner-up, and which vendor to cut first

With the Chrome extension: Ask Claude to research each vendor’s current pricing page and feature list in real time for more accurate scoring.

Draft a request for proposal (RFP)

Section titled “Draft a request for proposal (RFP)”
Draft an RFP for managed IT services for our company. Context:
- We're a 45-person accounting firm in Brisbane
- Currently self-managing IT with one part-time internal person
- 45 workstations (mix of Windows and Mac), 2 on-premise servers we want to migrate to cloud
- Key requirements: helpdesk support (Australian business hours), endpoint management, cloud migration, Microsoft 365 administration, cybersecurity (we handle sensitive financial data), backup and disaster recovery
- Budget range: $8,000-$15,000/month
- Timeline: want to transition within 90 days


Include sections for: company overview, scope of work, technical requirements, service levels (SLA expectations), pricing format (how we want them to quote), evaluation criteria, submission instructions, and timeline. Make it thorough but not intimidating — we want responses from mid-market MSPs, not just the enterprise giants.

Assess vendor risk

Section titled “Assess vendor risk”
Review this vendor's security questionnaire responses [upload] and their SOC 2 Type II report summary. We're evaluating them as a data processor for our customer records (approximately 25,000 records with PII including names, emails, and payment information).


Flag any concerns in these areas:
- Data residency (we need Australian data sovereignty or at minimum, not stored in jurisdictions without adequate privacy protections)
- Breach notification (must notify within 72 hours per our obligations under the Privacy Act)
- Sub-processors (who else touches our data?)
- Data deletion (can they fully purge our data on contract termination?)
- Business continuity (what happens if they go down or go under?)


Rate each area as GREEN (acceptable), YELLOW (needs clarification), or RED (unacceptable risk). For anything YELLOW or RED, draft the follow-up question I should send to their sales team.

Prepare negotiation talking points

Section titled “Prepare negotiation talking points”
I'm entering contract negotiations with [vendor name] for their enterprise plan. Here's what I know:
- List price: $45 per user/month, 50 users = $27,000/year
- They quoted us 15% off for annual commitment: $22,950/year
- We're a growing company, likely 80 users within 18 months
- Their competitor [alternative vendor] quoted $32/user/month with similar features
- We're currently month-to-month with our existing vendor, so we're not under time pressure
- They've been responsive and keen to close — their quarter ends next month


Prepare negotiation talking points: what discount should I target, what concessions beyond price should I ask for (implementation support, training, extended trial, SLA guarantees), what's my BATNA, and what should my walk-away terms be?

Claude produces:

  • Target terms — realistic price target with justification
  • Non-price concessions — implementation credits, training hours, SLA upgrades, contract flexibility
  • Leverage points — timing advantages, competitive alternatives, growth potential
  • Walk-away threshold — the point below which the deal isn’t worth pursuing
  • Negotiation sequence — what to raise first, what to save for later

Create reference check questions

Section titled “Create reference check questions”
I'm doing reference checks for a shortlisted payroll outsourcing provider. We're a 60-person company moving from in-house payroll processing.


Create a reference check questionnaire — 15 questions I should ask their existing clients. Cover:
- Implementation experience (was it on time? hidden costs?)
- Accuracy (payroll errors in the first 6 months? how were they resolved?)
- Support quality (response times, issue resolution, do they know your account?)
- Transition pain points (what would they do differently?)
- Overall satisfaction (would they choose this provider again? what's the biggest complaint?)


Write the questions to get honest answers, not polished ones. Include a few questions that give the reference permission to be candid.

How operators actually use it

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